- The population of La Aldea and of Gran Canaria in general will be able to answer a questionnaire and contribute their suggestions on an interactive website.
- The initiative includes conferences, workshops, a focus group and the direct collection of opinions that will lead to a diagnosis with multiple perspectives.
- It will provide a ‘picture’ of La Aldea in a national context where for every man who leaves his job to reconcile work and family life, 27 women do so.
The promotion of co-responsibility in care tasks, together with the taking of a ‘picture’ of the current reality and the search for formulas that pave the way for the employability of women of La Aldea, are the pillars of the project ‘La Aldea Emplea’ launched by the City Council of La Aldea de San Nicolás.
The initiative will be based on an interactive website open to the entire population of Gran Canaria to gather the views of the island’s population, as well as on conferences, workshops, meetings and the formation of a focus group that will lead to a diagnosis that will be the sum of multiple realities, perspectives and experiences.
La Aldea Emplea’ will last until the end of 2022 and is part of the actions of the III Equality Plan of the Town Hall of La Aldea de San Nicolás and is financed by the Department of Equality of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria within the Strategic Framework for Equality ‘Gran Canaria Infinita’.
The general objective of this project commissioned to the association Opciónate is to improve the visibility, social valuation and recognition of care work and co-responsibility, as well as support for carers and the promotion of employment for women in quality conditions, so as to enable them to reconcile work and personal life.
In order to raise social awareness about collective co-responsibility in care, the public will have at their disposal the digital space ‘Quiz’ to answer a questionnaire or to contribute new questions, experiences and suggestions at the link https://mujerteniasqueserlaaldea.com/quiz/.
In addition, care workshops will be held with schools, carers and social organisations with the participation of speakers and workshop participants. Workshops will also be held for teaching staff with proposals for activities on care for different age groups. Support for carers will be emphasised with two specific meetings with experiential and participatory dynamics.
Another goal is to obtain updated data on the employability of women in the municipality by identifying job opportunities, conditions and needs for access to and permanence in employment. In this case, the project will also take the form of a participatory diagnosis based on an online questionnaire, a focus group and consultation with women in La Aldea de San Nicolás.
This work will shed more light on the reality experienced in La Aldea in a general landscape in Spain where it is observed that for every man who leaves his job for family reasons, 27 women
do so (INE), or that 83% of the people who care for dependent persons are women (White Paper on Dependency).
In this same sense, in 57% of Spanish families it is the man who performs the paid work and the woman who performs the unpaid care work and, in fact, according to Oxfam (2020), “the value of women’s unpaid work is three times higher than spending on technology at a global level”. In Spain, women’s unpaid work accounts for 14.8% of GDP (ILO, 2018).
“La Aldea Emplea’ coincides with several essential elements of the Gran Canaria Infinita Framework, such as Axis III on the attention to working conditions, poverty and living conditions of economically vulnerable women and diverse groups, as well as Axis IV, focused on the sustainability of life, care and inclusive spaces, and Axis VI for the transformation of roles and areas in which discrimination, invisibilisation and devaluation of women persist.
It also contributes to the implementation of the 3rd Equality Plan of the City Council and specifically to the general objectives of favouring labour insertion in conditions that facilitate work-life balance, with special attention to vulnerable women; increasing opportunities and resources for work-life balance as a strategy for female employability; and improving the conditions in which care is provided and received, thus favouring equality, dignity and co-responsibility.
